A Day at the Circus
by dreamt-of
Summary: just a little bit of fluff about a 4 year old Robert Fischer Jr. at the circus with our favorite dream team. It's not meant to be taken seriously, and I own none of these charming characters. No ships unless you squint hard...


Just a little bit of cute cracky fluff, definitely not meant to be taken seriously.

If you're willing to play along, imagine for a moment a month or so later they just need to check up on their old friend Robert Fischer Jr. to make sure he's okay after they wandered around in his subconscious.

"Hello Mr. Fischer, I'm Dr. Charles the grief counselor with the funeral home calling about your follow up appointment. I'm sorry to hear about your father-"

"I didn't ask for a grief counselor but thank you anyway." He cut off the man on the phone.

"I'm sorry Mr. Fischer but it was in the contract you signed with the funeral home. Now we can do this over the phone, or you can see me in my office. I recommend the office visit, it will only take about an hour, and I offer a very unique form of therapy at my office. Dream therapy Mr. Fischer. Even if you don't believe in the benefits of therapy, at the very least you get a deep restful nap. Surely a man with your stress levels would value a moment to at least close his eyes."

Fischer considered and agreed. It would be nice to be able to get some rest, and if Peter asked he could legitimately say the therapy session was a mandated follow up by the funeral parlor. So he set up an appointment for the next day.

The receptionist, a pretty little brunette, took his name and information and told him he could wait in one of the chairs off to the side for Dr. Charles to finish up the session prior.

He discretely took in the other people in the waiting room. A thin young man had his nose in a novel, a stern looking Asian man was writing something on a legal pad, and a relaxed man with dark curls was musing over a crossword puzzle, all very well dressed. Dr. Charles must have a very important clientele. He picked up a National Geographic and leafed through it. A few minutes later the door to the office opened and another man entered the waiting room. He was dressed nicely but a little stranger than the others, and was British from the sound of it.

"Hello lovely." He cooed to the girl behind the desk. "Can I set up next month's appointment now, or can I call you?"

"You can schedule your next session now if you'd like. One moment please. Mr. Fischer, Dr. Charles will see you now." The Brit continued to flirt with the receptionist as he entered the cozy little room.

...

"Alright Mr. Fischer, now I want you to relax, you remember what we talked about right." Dr. Charles asked as he swabbed his arm. He nodded in response. "Now, you lay back and I'm going to turn on the machine. It may take you a moment to get used to your dream state but if you embrace it will go much smoother."

...

He closed his eyes and then seconds later he was surrounded by a whirl of color and sound. A circus! He loved the idea of a circus, but his dad would never take him, something about being better than that.

"Robert? Robert, C'mon we don't want to miss the show!" he looked up at the man next to him, he was familiar looking, but he just couldn't place him. Whoever he was he felt safe with this almost stranger, so he took his hand and was lead under the big top tent.

Cobb was grateful the now little boy beside him was too excited to notice there only seemed to be four different performers...

After the show he wanted to see the circus grounds and Cobb was more than happy to oblige. He liked kids, even if the child was actually a dreaming adult client, and four year old Robert Fischer was an incredibly well behaved child on top of it all. They wandered down the midway stopping occasionally for Fischer to try and take it all in.

"Ah there you are!" Eames jogged over to them Arthur, Ariadne and Yusef in tow. Fischer was quick to hide behind Cobb and clutch is pant legs in nervous fists. "And you must be Robert?" Eames bent down to his level and offered his hand for a shake. Robert regarded him curiously, deemed him capable of being threatening and hid further behind Cobb. "Oh alright, maybe later then."

"Robert, this is Eames, Arthur, Yusef, and Ariadne. They're friends of mine, and they'd like to spend the day with us if that's okay?"

He peered around the pant legs to put names to faces. He had already decided Eames was not to be trusted. Arthur reminded him of the kind of people he saw with his dad, which meant he could go either way, but liked both Yusef and Ariadne from the start. Yusef had a friendly smile and Ariadne was the prettiest girl he had ever seen. After a moment he decided it was safe to come out from behind Cobb, the friendly faces out numbered the suspicious ones after all.

"I'll take that as a yes, what do you want to see now?"

"Animals?"

"Then animals it is."

Animals were a very good choice. Yusef knew an awful lot about them especially the lions and tigers. He even got to feed a kangaroo!

"You know I don't even really like kids right?" Yusef muttered to Cobb while Fischer was distracted by a joey about as tall as he was.

"Yes I know, you told me for a week before this job. We just need to make sure we didn't damage anything with the inception job, and it's easiest to do that with his inner child. It will all be over soon, you're doing fine in the mean time, thank you."

Yusef grumbled something unintelligible under his breath while wiping kangaroo spit off on his pants.

"Can we play some games?" He asked when he was out of food pellets.

He was feeling a little more confident around the rest of them now, especially since Eames seemed to sense he scared him and mostly kept his mouth shut.

It turned out Arthur was much more fun that he looked, Fischer had never seen someone so good at carnival games before. None of the rest of them had either apparently.

"You're just full of surprises aren't you darling?" Eames chuckled as Arthur landed another ball in the 100-point section of the ski ball game.

"Most games just require some basic applications of mathematics and physics to master Eames, anyone could do it if they tried."

"Yes Pet, but most people don't"

The two of them bickered all the way to the booth for redeeming tickets. Fischer decided to stick close to Cobb again, too timid to ask to hold Ariadne's hand. At the decided on a plastic sword and shield (because knights were his favorite) which didn't take all of his tickets, but that was okay he used the rest of them to get a bracelet.

"Here you go Miss Ariadiney." He said as he turned pink and looked at his shoes.

"Thank you Robert, that's very sweet of you." She said as she put it on her wrist. "Would you like to ride the Ferris wheel with me?"

He nodded, as pink as ever.

"So cute" she mouthed over her shoulder as she held out her hand.

(Eames may or may not have quietly exclaimed "atta boy!" When she turned her back.)

The Ferris wheel was designed to be as gentle a kick as possible. It would rotate counter clockwise and gradually increase speed so as to eventually provide enough of a drop to trigger waking. It would do them no good to frighten Fischer with a sudden or violent kick, especially when he was a child.

Cobb watched as Fischer scrambled into the seat next to Ariadne and grasped the safety bar as it was lowered down. Eames and Arthur followed, as both Cobb and Yusef would rather not listen to them complain about the other.

At the top of the very first rotation Fischer suddenly realized how very high up they were. Ariadne noticed him white knuckling the railing and wrapped her arms around him. He buried his head in her side.

"Better?" She could feel him nod in response. The second or third time around he had warmed up to it enough that he could stand to watch and by the time it began to speed up he was giggling. He still felt safer the closer he was to Ariadne, but she didn't seem to mind...

...

He opened his eyes his stomach still flipping slightly. Across from him Dr. Charles was sitting up and removing the needle from his own arm.

"How are you feeling Mr. Fischer?" He crossed over to him to clean and bandage his connection site.

"Relaxed thank you. I had no idea a day at the circus could be so refreshing."

"I'm glad Mr. Fischer, would you like me to walk you out?"

"No thank you, but thank you Dr. Charles." He extended his hand for a shake.

The waiting room was empty aside from the stern looking Asian man who was still absorbed in whatever was on his legal pad.

"Have a nice day Robert." The receptionist added politely as he passed by.

"Thank you, you too." He responded automatically, but then he stopped for a moment when he realized she had used his first name. Strange, he thought as he turned to look at her. She was the same woman as before but there was something different about her now...

Wait, the receptionist was... nonsense ...he thought to himself. It was only a coincidence. Either way he didn't want her to see how pink he turned when she gave him a knowing little smile.


End file.
